Art Deco Pendulum Final Report Part 1

Art Deco Pendulum Final Report Part 1

For my design project, I created an art deco pendulum. I think movement is really important to the Art Deco era, so something that has movement as its central component will exemplify the era well. For my entire life, I have been interested in moving things. My interests mostly center around trains, which were a very common subject of Art Deco art and architecture. They were streamlined, and their stations soared high with many concrete and steel components. A lot of posters were made at the time, too, with simplistic yet sleek advertising for the travel that passengers would soon be embarking on.

The above image shows an Art Deco-style poster for the Trans-Australian railway. This image is from Commonwealth Railways and was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, 1951.

Many trains in this era looked more like rockets than trains, with the functional components being hidden by steel sideskirting. An example of this streamlining is the Commodore Vanderbilt, a 4-6-4 Hudson locomotive built for the New York Central Railroad in 1926 and streamlined in 1934. The streamlining made this 8-year-old locomotive look practically brand new and made the New York Central jump into what they envisioned as the future.

The above image shows the Commodore Vanderbilt Locomotive. It is from International News Photos and was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, February 22, 1935.

The New York Central was an innovator in streamlining and ended up with what is probably the most recognizable streamlined locomotive that ever existed, the J3A Hudson.  In the 1930s, several of these locomotives were covered in streamlining that was designed by Henry Dreyfuss, earning them the name “Dreyfuss Hudsons.” These elegantly designed locomotives were a quintessential part of the Art Deco era. Unfortunately, none of these beautiful locomotives survive today, but most modern streamlined trains take some inspiration from them. I see this era as more of a past vision of an idealistic future and less of a realistic future. It reminds me of the Spongebob episode where “everything is chrome in the future.”

The inspiration for the pendulum aspect comes from the trains themselves, or more specifically, the Disneyland Mark I monorail. This early monorail design exemplifies the same idealistic future that many designers foresaw in the Art Deco era. It is a train that looks like a rocket, and no functional components are visible. The beauty of the train allows a viewer to suspend their disbelief and forget that it rides on a large concrete rail. The train appears to fly, so I thought my pendulum would fly as well. The tip of the pendulum is a 3D printed model that is loosely based on the Disneyland monorail, and the arm is a piece of plywood. I originally wanted to paint this piece like concrete, but I ended up painting it black. The monorail itself is as detailed as the real thing, which is to say barely at all. It has pointed noses on both ends, a bubble for the operator to view out of the top, and windows on the sides. It also has pontoon-like fins on the bottom. As for paint, the monorail is painted in different metallic gold, except for the windows, which are a dark bluish-gray. The actual Disneyland monorails are painted in different bright colors, such as orange and yellow. I thought I might still include color elsewhere, but I wanted the monorail to look more bullet-like and show raw materials.

The structure that the pendulum swings on takes more inspiration from Art Deco train stations. For instance, Cincinnati Union Station is a very large concrete arch. There are several concrete pillars in the courtyard out front. My inspiration from this is the shape of the structure, which is also an arch. I also decided to make each end of the arch look like little train stations for the monorail to stop at.

The above image shows Cincinnati Union Terminal. This image was taken by Tysto on August 10, 2005, and uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.

Many trains during the Art Deco Era were named after the Greek God of the West Wind, Zephyrus. These include the California Zephyr, the Pioneer Zephyr, the Burlington Zephyr, and many others. The word “Zephyr” is appealing on its own, but the allusion to Greek Mythology makes it even more interesting. A modern train can be sleek and fast and still have a connection to something ancient. Images of Zephyrus are included in my Art Deco Pendulum on either side.

I took the above image at the Amtrak station in Glenwood Springs. Note the image of Zephyrus on the logo. I used this image to make the lasercut images of Zephyrus on my project.

I did not do any CAD for the overall design of this project. I made 2 initial sketches and went from there. When doing a project like this, I tend to not like to plan too much because I get bogged down in the details. I much prefer to see where my technical skills take me. I only CAD what I need to, and that ended up being the 2 monorail stations, the monorail, the columns, and the images of Zephyrus.

The above renders are my CAD drawings for the columns, the monorail, and the stations.

My pendulum structure turned out basically exactly how I wanted it to from the beginning, which is rare for me. When I do a project, it generally ends up working out but looking completely different from what I had envisioned in my head. This can either be because of fabrication setbacks or new ideas that popped up along the way. In this case, everything just worked. The fabrication was easy and seamless, and everything just looks great.

The above image shows my finished project.